Multichamber containers made of leather, glass, plastic and other materials have been manufactured to store and deliver contents such as different liquors, body moisturizing lotions, chemical drain cleaners, two-part epoxies, drugs, food products including condiments, and other contents which either benefit by being separately dispersed or are activated at the time of dispersal by mixing.
A dual chambered container disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 284,127 to Gruenebaum presented two oppositely inclined necks to obviate the need to raise the flask overly much for the purpose of imbibing its liquors or wines. However, this design would not stand on a shelf nor be suitable to viscous contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,363,064 to Stegath introduced a duplex tube which presented the convenience of keeping complementary items such as shaving cream and lotion at hand in one container, in this case a flexible squeezable metal tube. The container disclosed by Stegath would not be suitable to storage in an upright position on a shelf, nor is it suitable for food products due to the strong association of such tubes with toiletry and medicinal items.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,661,870 to Huenergardt; U.S. Pat. No. 3,197,071 to Kuster; U.S. Pat. No. 3,206,074 to Hoffman; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,467,269 to Newton present various container designs suitable to displaying and storing on a shelf. However these containers are unduly complicated and expensive to manufacturer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,506,157 to Dukess discloses a closure device to seal a multiple chamber container. The contents stored in the container would tend to intermix upon the flat surfaces normal to the prongs. U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,553 to D. Gold et al. is bulky and does not explain by what method the portrayed bottle is to be manufactured. U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,417 to Simmons discloses a fluid dispenser having dual chambers formed by a cast molding process or a blow-molding process. However, an adequate method to control the blow-molding of such a dual chamber is not reliably described.
In traditional blow-molding a plastic material is blown against solid walls of an encasing metal mold. Typically, to produce a dual chamber container with a blow-molding process, two singularly molded halves are formed and glued together. The side-by-side nozzles are bulky, awkward, complex, and inefficient. Containers produced according to this method do no achieve a desired aesthetic or marketing appeal. A further disadvantage is a splotchy appearance of glue on the dividing surface.
Another container of the prior art includes two halves of the container mechanically connected and glued together, with one half offset or displaced from the other but joined by a common cap. This container displays both ingredients when viewed frontally but sacrifices the sense of unity with two ingredients in one bottle.
Other containers of the prior art are directed to separating ingredients while stored, but intermixing the ingredients before dispensing for the purpose of activating the ingredients. Examples of such ingredients include body lotions, moisturizers, chemical drain cleaners, etc. One known design intermixes mustard and ketchup before dispensing. The intermixing of the contents often produces an unsavory appearance and loses any aesthetic delight of drawing designs in a dual color stream.
In known dual chamber bottles, a simple utilitarian joining of two halves has been utilized for such items as drain cleaners and two-part epoxies, or the ingredients and the means of separation are not viewable because the outer walls are opaque. Such packaging is not suitable to the demands of marketing and merchandising in highly competitive or “high-end” areas such as foods and cosmetics. Clearly this is an unaddressed problem when it comes to the real world of selling products in bottles. The present invention addresses and solves this problem.
In order to dispense the contents, the container should be able to be squeezed. It is understood that a divider in a bottle strengthens the bottle in the planar direction of the divider, making it more difficult to squeeze the bottle in the planar direction. Most bottles for display on shelves are wider than they are deep. Any division of the bottle perpendicular to the front or back inhibits the squeezing of the bottle because the squeezing would most desirably occur in a perpendicular direction along the divider.
If the known container were such that the front and back halves were separated, then one ingredient would not be visible when the bottle was displayed facing front on a shelf. The present invention overcomes this problem as well.
Indeed the containment and display of products is a crowded field. The need to simultaneously present the contents in dual chamber bottles, such as mustard and ketchup, has long been felt but, despite market need, has not previously been met.
Accordingly, the background art has the disadvantages of at least being unduly complicated in design and costly in manufacture, not being suitable to standing on a shelf for display, failing to address the display function of the bottle, or losing the unity of the bottle for this purpose. An example of an invention which resembles the present invention and yet is crucially dissimilar is Flaig, et. al 5,740,947. In Flaig a dual chamber bottle has a non-diagonal dividing wall comprised of two elements, namely a sinusoidal surface and a flat planar wall The flat planar portion does not translate to the exterior of the bottle. The flat plane does not achieve a curvilinear intersection with the surface of the bottle. The shape of the edge of the sinusoidal surface wholly determines the viewable line of division between the two bottle halves and not any interaction of this shape with the complexly curved outer bottle wall. Accordingly the shape and form do not read on the present invention.